Russell Kirk Courtesy Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal
It’s not often that a village of just over 400 residents becomes a draw for scholars around the world.
Thanks to a unique political / social center, the little ‘burb of Mecosta between Mt Pleasant and Big Rapids is just that.
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal brings academics from Europe, Japan and South America to translate and study the works of a man who was eulogized as the person who gave conservatism its name and genealogy.
Russell Kirk was born in Plymouth, Michigan in 1918. He studied at Michigan State University and Duke University before serving in World War Two. After the war, he attended St Andrews University in Scotland and he began speaking more about conservatism.
Kirk’s widow Annette said her husband was the first thought leader to use the word “conservative”. "Russell influenced the conservative movement in terms of giving it its name. So Russell influenced the Conservative movement. That doesn’t mean everyone adhered to his meaning or followed it. But he gave the movement its name and genealogy."
Russell Kirk wrote 32 books, he’s best known for two; “The Conservative Mind” and” Roots of American Order”. Annette said, "When he published Conservative Mind in 1953, and there were four pages and a review of it in Time magazine, giving him his reputation, there was no term then known as conservatism. Buckley hadn’t started the National Review - he called himself an individualist. Russell did not call himself an individualist, and in fact he converted many people to understanding what conservatism was".
Kirk spent the second half of his life living in Mecosta at what is today "The Russell Kirk Center of Cultural Renewal". The center has become a destination for conservative scholars.They flock from around the world
Annette said the center is known for its fellowships, but she says its work reaches beyond the facility itself. "We also do other things, like have debates elsewhere. We also participate in GVSU ... in a common ground project that they have. That is trying to find common ground between progressives and conservatives. We have a day or two every year, a summit we call it, and we have all sorts of people from either position represented and they discuss, debate, converse, is there a possibility of finding common ground?"
And what they often find, she said, is what people have known for generations, "So much rests on personalities and how people get along together. The most common ground we find is when people go to the bar afterwards and have a drink. Then you really find out what people think".
With the turbulent politics of today, it was impossible to talk with Annette and not ask her what her husband would have thought of the current situation. She was careful to say that since the center is a non-profit political foundation, it does not take political positions, and she says she’s interested in, quote, “keeping Russell above the fray”. She continued, "At the same time, Russell would say “this too shall pass”. He would compare it to other times in history when there were rulers that were upsetting the status quo, and show that they had their time in the sun and then others came along. And sometimes, I don’t want to say “out of evil can come good”, but out of difficulty can come a reassessment and a realignment of party policies and understandings. And one has to be hopeful and hope that that is what will come out of this unique situation that we have politically".
Annette Kirk moves, speaks and you can imagine thinks quickly. But, she said, she’s 77 years old and looking to a time when she will turn control over the center over to the next generation. "Hopefully it will continue.My daughter is here locally. But another daughter in Delaware is planning to come and continue his work right here".
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal; a political destination of big ideas that helps to put the small community of Mecosta On the Map.
